Vison of Life...It speaks about my views towards what's happening around us, though many of the things represents Pune, a becoming Metro in Maharashtra,India yet most of us live in similar city life. In city day to day life all we face is problems around us; from traffic to water to slums to power supply & many more, but who has solutions? That's why the name
Vison of Life!
Sanjay Deshpande

Sunday, August 24, 2014

A Mess called Metro!

Games are won not on wish to win but on determination to win… Sunil
Gavaskar.

The
little master might have referred above quote to the test series which we lost
poorly in England but when I read the news papers & especially the famous
or infamous Metro of our city, then I feel how prefect this quote fits here! So much has been written about Metro that I feel by now
people must have thought that Metro seems to be only solution for every problem
of our Pune city! As, right from Hon CM to every politician from even
the smallest karyakarta of the party, NGO’s, Social personality too Media all
seems to have this single agenda i.e. Metro on their mind! We are famous for
controversies & but no topic related to this city is as fortunate or say
celebrity like the Metro, getting so much publicity!

We
have been reading about the Metro since more than five years & let me clear
in the first clear, I am no authority on Metro or
traffic planning, all I am interested is analyzing the scene on the basis of
what I have been reading in media like every common citizen of this city!
We have read that Metro is the next in thing & which will change the future
of this city & this too from nearly now over six years back. Before this
analysis lets understand what is the Metro, as many even may not be knowing
what is Metro in actual! Well, for those lucky souls, Metro is nothing as
interesting as some new age supersonic jet airplane but it’s a form of railway
which has a dedicated route within the city or call it track & unlike our
regular railway or local in Mumbai, Metro can travel right within the city
either on over head tracks or underground, without disturbing the city life
around, at least that’s what is expected. Then the coaches or bogies are not
open like the regular railway, that’s one more difference & it’s mainly to
carry the city traffic & not connecting two cities. Obviously the cost per
kilometer length is much higher than the normal railway line & so is the
operating cost too.

Now
you have got the concept of Metro then let’s see what’s scene in our city. As I
mentioned some six years back the dream named Metro has been introduced to us,
after that lot of water has passed under the bridge named Govt on this front.
But still no one, even the Hon Cm can’t guaranty when actually Metro will start
as right from the routes to form of the Metro i.e. whether it will be overhead
or underground every aspect which should be freeze, has gone in to just
discussion & like the famous Sunny Deol’s “Damini” movie dialogue ,
its just “Tarikh pe tarikh”, we have just been reading about new assurances
& announcements about the Metro. First of all lets know as its being
projected that Metro will solve all the traffic issues of the city, it’s not
so. The routes in combining both i.e. Pimpri Chinchwad to Swargate & Vanaj
to Ramwadi, its hardly 31 kms in total. The city after merging new villages
& in combination with PCMC has spread on nearly over 650 sq kms &
that’s large area. Also the growth isn’t planned, people travel crisscrossing
the city; for many travelling isn’t more than 7-8 kms & that too not in
straight line, so question is why they are not taking present available public
transport? Answer is simple as there isn’t any such! The PMPML or more
popularly known as Pune Municipal Transport has failed miserably on providing a
sustainable option for public transport & nothing has been done to
strengthen the same is also a fact.

So
a question for common man like me is till Metro don’t come in existence why the
available means of public transport is not being improved; as we have witness
the fiasco of BRT i.e. Bus route transport & on this background when even
to start the Metro its being taken more than six years what warranty our rulers
are going to give about successful implementation of Metro?

After
confirming the routes & nature of Metro, which by my knowledge is now will
be above the ground then comes the rest of formalities which has been laid by
Central Govt, like formation of a separate company to monitor the Metro but
what we read in media confuses us more as there is no such company formed yet
& on the top of it State Govt & Central Govt including every person
related to Metro is making statements so much contradictory to each other that
even a sane person will go mad reading them! State Govt & ruling parties in
state says they have compiled everything asked by Central Govt & its new
Govt which is of opposite party, is biasly behaving & holding up the Metro
of the city. Central Govt & the people of opposition in State says it’s the
negligence of State Govt which hasn’t fulfilled any norms laid by Central Govt
& that has caused delay to the Metro. And in this fight there isn’t
approval by Central Govt till date to the Metro, so no question arises about
budget provision for the same!

In
the mean time, has even Hon CM even went ahead & declared the date of Metro
bhoomipuja, whereas there even is no appointment of some post as Special Operating
Officer for the Metro; which is again a mandatory condition! And joke is the
person who has been appointed at this post has been sacked & new biodata's
have been called & there is no response to the call is the latest news!
Obviously no wise person will like to become scapegoat of our rulers, is what I
guess! My my! So much of fuss over a route of just 31 km!

What
all this shows? Are we incapable of even finalizing
one railway track in city which is supposed to be Oxford of the East! Is
there no one in entire Central Govt or in State Govt or in city civic body, who
will come forward & take the responsibility of making the Metro a reality?
I think all concerned don’t want to take any risk of losing this battle which
has been already lost; as it’s said that the battles
are win or lost in planning & on paper & what happens on field is just
execution of what has been planned!

Following
the track of paper work if we go by what media says then the delay itself has
caused nearly five thousand crores rupees of increase in costing of Metro i.e.
today it will cost over some eleven thousand crores & each year’s delay
will add on some seven hundred crores of rupees in the costing. Looking at
figures again a poor common citizen like me will think that on one side we are
not making provisions of merely some hundred crores of rupees for the PMT, then
again what’s guaranty that this kind of money will be generated in time &
will be made available to the Metro? As some ten percent of amount has to be
shelled out by the lock civic body i.e. PMC, means with today’s figures one
thousand crores of rupees PMC will have to provide, & from where this money
will be generated? One answer is by giving addition FSI to the properties along
the Metro track. Well, what if these properties won’t come in time for the
development? And also what about the infrastructural requirements of the city
which will increase by four times due to this? Even today we don’t have enough
funds to buy the reservation lands & the classic example is land under BDP
i.e. bio diversity park on the hills. It’s said some one thousand crore rupees
will require to acquire these lands & we haven’t yet taken the policy
decision for the same & each passing day these lands are falling victim to
illegal development & slums! So with such poor track record what’s fate of
Metro this even a small kid can tell!

Instead
of making individual statements in news papers, why not a single concerned
department has published a white paper is a report about the facts of Metro
& its viability giving clear idea about the responsibility of individual
organization regarding Metro?

And
today only I came across a write-up by Mr. Shashikant Limaye, former Special
Officer for Metro, he said this is just first phase as so short route can’t
solve any problem of traffic but there has to be network of Metro all around
the city. Like Delhi Metro started with 60km length & now it’s going towards
300km mark; same is happening with Bangalore. And this is what even I have seen
in cities like Paris or Singapore where the Metro tracks covers entire city
& then people use it at fullest. At the same time the Metro has to have
back up by equally efficient network of road transport; so we will be needing
PMT as filler & its importance don’t go down by entry of Metro. So what are
the plans for these infrastructure activities is equally unclear.

One
may as usual ask what this all has to do with real estate? Well real estate survives on infrastructure & good
transportation is very basic need of any city. People can’t live just
within four wall but they need to go out of them & earn their bread &
so as their kids needs to go to school & so on. Take example of any good
city in urban history, it does have traffic problems & only those cities
have survived which has found solutions to the traffic problems. Take example
of Bangalore, many people have migrated out of the city just because the city
failed to solve two basic problems, water & traffic. People get frustrated
in every day struggle of travelling to work place & reach back home!
Mumbai’s local’s success we all know & properties near to local stations
have always been in demand. As already in today’s carrier oriented life every
minute of the day counts & if we are wasting it in travelling then its
unproductive time & each such minute spent in travel generates more stress
in the common citizen of the city. Here is where importance of fronts like
Metro or entire traffic solutions comes in picture!

Unfortunate
that there is no pressure group formed by the real estate segment of the city
or the residents in the millions of units they have build, which will urge the
rulers to stop making false or confusing announcement & instead show some
action on the front of Metro as well entire traffic scene. Media is also busy
in giving publicity to such statement of the leaders which carry no value in
actual for the common citizen. Instead they should be asking these concerned
personnel’s to bring the truth about the Metro in light so the common man can
focus his power towards the right person who can deliver the solution to the
problem. After all no one is against Metro but the way we have made the mess of
it, the common man is losing the faith in the system & once that happens
not even Metro will be able to restore it!

What Metro needs is not budget provision or a special company
but a determination to make it a reality & a person who can assure that
determination to the common man of this city. And unfortunately in the city of
over sixty millions, that one person is missing, making the Metro a Mess!